As the preceding analysis shows, there is a New York Times of the right. It’s called … the New York Times. Carlson, for instance, isn’t going to send an investigative team to probe a drone strike in some far-off land; he has no such team, so he relies on the Times.
Nor is this reliance limited to “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” It’s a network-wide phenomenon. In recent weeks: Host Sean Hannity credited the Times for a story on CIA assets who’ve been killed or captured; host Howard Kurtz credited a Times documentary on Britney Spears and a “bombshell” on Trump’s taxes; host Steve Hilton credited a Times piece on covid risk; host Shannon Bream credited a Times piece on inflation challenges; guest host Mike Emanuel credited a Times story citing Disney’s 18-year battle over Winnie the Pooh; host Bret Baier credited a Times piece on congressional politics; host Maria Bartiromo credited a Times piece reporting that Jill Biden had hung artwork by Hunter Biden in her office; hosts Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro credited a Times piece in which a former colleague of CNN anchor Chris Cuomo accused him of sexual harassment. (A spokeswoman for the New York Times has yet to respond to an inquiry about the number of Times subscribers at Fox News.)
When Fox News isn’t citing the Times’s authority, it’s seeking to reduce that authority. Carlson in August called the Times part of a “Praetorian guard” protecting a corrupt establishment; host Mark Levin said it was one of several “propaganda organizations, an appendage of the Democratic Party in the big state.” And how many times has Hannity called the paper “fake news”?
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